The invention falls within the technical field of implants for the treatment of male urinary incontinence. This incontinence can result from prostatectomy performed to treat prostate cancer.
More generally, there exist implants or devices to treat this incontinence, the majority of which make use of the principle of the sub-urethral sling, widely known for the treatment of urinary stress incontinence in women.
Many implants or devices have been described for treating male or female incontinence. For example, the applicant has developed solutions described in the French patents 2934150 and 2926455. Others have also published patents such as FR 2906131, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,431,690, 7,559,885, EP 2025304.
For the treatment of female urinary incontinence the main solutions used insert the sling through the obturator foramina of the pelvis following a trans-obturator route. It has also been proposed that the sling should be inserted posterior to the pubis via the retro-pubic route. FIGS. 1 and 2 show diagrams of the route taken by the sling in these two situations.
For mild to moderate male urinary incontinence, the devices are mainly based on the trans-obturator route.
The applicant has observed that the efficacy of these devices or implants was still poor. Prior art solutions provide localized support for the urethra, but this can lead to migration of the sling or limited efficacy.
From the documents U.S. 2004/039453 and WO 2009/086446 we know, moreover, of implants the constituent parts of which have characteristics and mechanical properties that can vary because of different weaving/knitting processes.
The applicant's approach lay therefore in reconsidering the design of the implant to allow the urethra to be held more securely, limit the risk of sling migration and to optimize the device. In view of the prior art, the solution provided by the applicant is simple in design and answers the problem posed to advantage.